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Antisemite Thomas Lopez-Pierre is running a new bid for a seat on the New York City Council. Picture: thomaslopezpierre.com

A hardened antisemite running for the New York City Council in upper Manhattan has appealed to BDS advocate Linda Sarsour for her support.

Thomas Lopez-Pierre is running in the 7th Council District – which includes Washington Heights, West Harlem and the Upper West Side – against incumbent Jewish Democrat Mark Levine on a platform that claims, as summarized on his Twitter feed: “Jewish landlords OWN 80% of private rental buildings in Upper Manhattan; GUILTY of GREED for pushing Black/Hispanic tenants out.”

Now Lopez-Pierre is seeking the endorsement of Sarsour, who is currently making waves over her forthcoming commencement speech at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health on June 1. CUNY has been taken to task by Jewish leaders and some local politicians for honoring an activist with a record of inflammatory statements against Israel, including a tweet that declared “nothing is creepier than Zionism.” In a recent interview with The Algemeiner, Abraham Foxman, National Director Emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), deemed Sarsour a “bigot” and added that CUNY should not have extended an invitation to her.

But while Sarsour restricts her attacks to “Zionists,” avoiding “Jews” per se, Lopez-Pierre has a long history of bombastic and frequently foul-mouthed rants against both Jewish individuals and the community as a whole. His tweets routinely target “Greedy Jewish Landlords,” while a YouTube video by a Jewish female comedian poking fun at him drew the comment that “This Jewish woman is NOT only sexy BUT very funny.”

Lopez-Pierre’s dark side came to the fore recently when the New York Observerreported that, in January, he was found guilty on a misdemeanor criminal contempt charge for knowingly violating a family court restraining order his ex-wife had obtained. According to the Observer, his former spouse alleged that, despite the standing order of protection, Lopez-Pierre twice approached her in the fall of 2015 to threaten her with the words, “Don’t f— with me, b—-!”

African-American supporters of his rival Mark Levine have been subjected to racist abuse by Lopez-Pierre. In 2013, when Lopez-Pierre ran against Levine for the first time, he emailed Brian Benjamin, an African-American supporter of Levine’s, telling him, “You are an uncle Tom…Its N—- b—- like you that have sold out the Black people of Harlem.”

On Twitter on Tuesday, in a response to a question from another user as to whether Sarsour had endorsed his campaign, Lopez-Pierre responded that he was seeking her support, describing her as a “great social advocate.”

While Sarsour has yet to respond to Lopez-Pierre’s appeal, her supporters on Twitter expressed confidence that she would disavow him. Sarsour did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Algemeiner.

What I have not seen mentioned in any of the articles I’ve read is that the commencement ceremony is taking place on the second day of Shavuot. And this in New York, a city whose population includes a few Jews and in which many if not most American Jews have roots. How’s that for social justice?